Gospel: Mark 2: 18-22
We human beings grow accustomed to routine, so much so that the routine itself no longer holds any meaning and it ceases to teach us what it intends to teach. Consider the example of fasting in the Gospel: a person grows accustomed to abstaining from meat on Fridays and finds so many other things to enjoy that the discipline is no longer a sacrifice and fails to teach us what it was intended to teach. A new discipline is needed for us to grow in our faith life, a new wineskin comes to take the place of the old.
Jesus comes to provide that challenge, one we still have not been able to meet. He announced that the kingdom of God is open to all; he invites all to sit at the same table with all sorts of people: sinners of all types as well as the self-righteous. This invitation and Jesus actually living it out in his own life makes the Pharisees of Jesus time and our own uncomfortable. It is a practice they reject, a discipline they cannot accept. So, vicarious practices such as fasting and such are instituted to avoid what is most important and what Jesus challenges us to do.
The disciplines we invent for ourselves will always be easier than those God imposes upon us. Fasting and abstaining are easier tasks than actually welcoming all to the table of the Lord. We will prefer and choose the fast to loving and welcoming the stranger, or the enemy, or anyone different from us. Let us accept the challenge of Jesus, and seek to live it each day.
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